Book Details

Book Description

Covering the latest version (Unity 4) of this established game engine, the Unity 4.x Cookbook explores a wide range of 3D, animation, multimedia, and scripting game features.

The power of Unity 4 is demonstrated through the 10 chapters covering many of this game engine’s features.

"Unity 4.x Cookbook" helps you learn how to make the most of the powerful but easy-to-use Unity 4 game engine.

Every Unity game developer is different. Some come from a multimedia background, some are new to game development, and some are transferring from other engines. Whatever your background, with the breadth and depth of topics covered you should find new features and techniques to enhance your next game.

This book offers detailed, easy-to-follow, step-by-step recipes helping you master a wide range of Unity game features.

Save and load text, XML, or media assets from local or remote sources, and communicate with websites and their databases to create online scoreboards

Authors

Matt Smith

Matt Smith is a computing academic from Dublin, Ireland. In 1983 Matt started computer programming (on a ZX80) and for his 'O-level' computing certificate (aged 16) he submitted 2 games for his programming project work. In 1985 Matt wrote the lyrics, and was a member of the band that played (and sang, sorry about that by the way) the music on the B-side of the audio cassette carrying the computer game Confuzion (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confuzion).

On a succession of scholarships he managed to spend almost 10 years as a full time student, gaining BA (Hons), then MSc then PhD degrees in computing and artificial intelligence. He then became a full-time lecturer. Having previously lectured full-time at Winchester University and London's Middlesex University, since 2002 he has been at the Institute of Technology Blanchardstown in Dublin (http://www.itb.ie/) where he is he is now senior lecturer in computing.

Some of his previous Irish–French student team games can be found and played at http://www.saintgermes.com (thanks for continuing to host these Guillem!). Matt wasone of the two technical experts for a recent multimedia European project for language and cultural student work mobility (http://www.vocalproject.eu).

He studies and teaches Taekwon-Do with his two children, having been awarded his first degree black belt in 2015 (he also runs his club's website at http://www.maynoothtkd.com/). He is trying to learn Irish, so he will understand the report cards from his children's Irish-speaking school. In occasional moments of free time he also tries to get better at playing the piano and classical guitar.

Matt's previous publications include a chapter in Serious Games and Edutainment Applications (Springer 2011, ISBN: 1447121600), and contributions and editing ofseveral music education and artificial intelligence books.

Chico Queiroz

Chico Queiroz is a digital media designer from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Chico started his career back in 2000, soon after graduating in Communications/Advertising (PUC-Rio), working with advergames and webgames using Flash and Director at LocZ Multimedia, where he contributed to the design and development of games for clients, such as Volkswagen and Parmalat, along with some independent titles.

He curated and organized an exhibition held at SBGames 2009, which explored the connections between video games and art. SBGames is the annual symposium of the Special Commission of Games and Digital Entertainment of the Computing Brazilian Society.

Chico currently works as a digital designer at the Tecgraf/PUC-Rio Institute for Technical-Scientific Software Development, where he, among other responsibilities, uses Unity to develop interactive presentations and concept prototypes for interactive visualization software. He also works as a lecturer at PUC-Rio, teaching undergraduate design students 3D modeling and technology/CG for games, in which Unity is used as the engine for the students'projects. Additionally, Chico is a PhD student in design at the same institution.

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Series & Level

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Learning

As a new user, these step-by-step tutorial guides will give you all the practical skills necessary to become competent and efficient.

Beginner's Guide

Friendly, informal tutorials that provide a practical introduction using examples, activities, and challenges.

Essentials

Fast paced, concentrated introductions showing the quickest way to put the tool to work in the real world.

Cookbook

A collection of practical self-contained recipes that all users of the technology will find useful for building more powerful and reliable systems.

Blueprints

Guides you through the most common types of project you'll encounter, giving you end-to-end guidance on how to build your specific solution quickly and reliably.

Mastering

Take your skills to the next level with advanced tutorials that will give you confidence to master the tool's most powerful features.

Starting

Accessible to readers adopting the topic, these titles get you into the tool or technology so that you can become an effective user.

Progressing

Building on core skills you already have, these titles share solutions and expertise so you become a highly productive power user.